Agenda item

To receive and consider the attached report of the Chief Officer, Elections and Regulatory

The report of the Chief Officer Elections and Regulatory presented an application for the grant of a Premises Licence for Takeaway at 183 Meanwood Road, Meanwood Leeds, LS7 1NB.

The following were in attendance for this item:

George Domleo, Flint Bishop LLP – Applicant’s Representative

Mahboob Hussain – Applicant

Vanessa Holroyd – Environmental Protection Team

The Legal Officer explained the procedure and the Licensing Officer presented the application.

The application was for the provision of late night refreshment every day from 23:00 to 05:00.

The application had received representations from West Yorkshire Police and Environmental Protection.  Agreement had been reached with West Yorkshire Police to incorporate a number of measures and their representation had been withdrawn.  Environmental Protection had suggested additional measures and a reduction to the hours applied for.  This representation remained outstanding.

The applicant’s representative addressed the Sub-Committee.  The following was highlighted:

·  The applicant was an experienced operator and had two other late night premises in the area.

·  The premises had previously been used as a hot food takeaway without a late night refreshment licence.  The applicant would be willing to accept a condition that the premises be delivery/collection only.

·  The applicant had taken steps to meet the licensing objectives included those proposed by West Yorkshire Police and most of those proposed by Environmental Protection.

·  The premises would only have a very minimal impact on residential amenity.

·  The application was solely for late night refreshment and conditions had been agreed to meet the licensing objectives.  Measures taken included CCTV, regular servicing of machinery to prevent noise and installation of silencers to the extraction system and monitoring of delivery drivers.

·  The measures taken would mitigate concerns regarding noise nuisance concerns and the Environmental Protection concerns were speculative.  There had not been any objections made by local residents.

·  There were other premises in the area that operated until 5.00 a.m.

·  With regard to concern regarding emission of odours, it was reported that this would be prevented by the regular servicing of equipment.  There had not been any complaints from local residents regarding this.

·  Should there be any problems if a licence is granted then the licence could be reviewed or enforcement action taken.

·  There would be no public access as it was proposed to be delivery only.

In response to questions from the Sub-Committee, the following was discussed:

·  Third party delivery drivers would be used.  They would have contractual obligations to work in accordance with the conditions of the licence.  Any issues would be investigated by the applicant with the third party company.

·  There was one flat directly above the premises and two more to the side.

·  Customers were likely to be local people and those using at the later hours towards closing were likely to be people coming home or going out to work.

·  It was estimated that there would be ten deliveries per hour.

·  Some of the deliveries would be made by bicycle.

The Environmental Protection representative addressed the Sub-Committee.  The following was highlighted:

·  The premises were located in a a parade of shops with flats above and there was restricted access to parking.

·  The ground floor premises were used for cooking and would require a powerful extraction system which would transmit through the structure of the building.

·  There had recently been complaints from the business next door.

·  This application included a change of use and the existing extraction system was likely to be unfit.

·  The applicant had not provided any details of how they would soundproof the premises.

·  There were concerns with regard to the proposed closing time of 5.00 a.m. as there would be noise from delivery drivers.

·  There had been agreement with regard to some conditions but these were based on the premises closing at midnight.

·  Current planning arrangements only permitted the premises to be open until 11.30 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10.30 p.m. on Sunday.

·  It was likely that complaints would be made due to odour.  The extraction flue terminated close to flat numbers 185 and 197. 

·  The previous owner lived above the premises and closed at 10.30 p.m.

·  It was felt that granting of this application would lead to complaints due to noise, vibration and odour.  Legal notices had to be served at a similar premises.

·  The Sub-Committee was asked to consider the representations of Environmental Protection to prevent any nuisance to residents.

In response to questions, the following was discussed:

·  Installation of a new flue and extraction system would still lead to noise pollution.

·  The applicant would be willing to reduce hours of operation till 4.00 a.m.

·  The lack of objections from the occupants of the flat was not unusual.  It wasn’t until premises started operating that problems occurred.

·  Environmental Protection did not feel that a 4.00 a.m. closing time would be sufficient to avoid problems.

·  The premises were currently vacant and had been closed since 2018.

In conclusion the applicant’s representative reminded the Sub-Committee that the premises had previously operated as a takeaway.  The applicant was an experienced operator and had not encountered any problems at similar premises. Planning permission had been applied for and the applicant had a 10 year lease on the premises. Measures had been agreed with West Yorkshire Police and Environmental Protection, reputable third party companies would be used for delivery and there was nothing to suggest that the licensing objectives would be undermined.

The Sub-Committee went into private session to make their deliberations and carefully considered the report of the Chief Officer, Elections and Regulatory, the submissions made in writing and at the hearing, and also the Statement of Licensing Policy.

RESOLVED – That the application be granted subject to a reduced terminal hour of 00:00 every day and to include conditions as proposed by West Yorkshire Police and the Environmental Protection Team.  The premises to operate on a delivery only basis.